We First, Always
by MannixMind
Summary: Picks up from the time of Beth's kidnapping, and continues beyond the season 4 finale. Rated M for language, violence, sexual themes, and potentially romance. Bethyl.
1. Chapter 1

Panic was all she felt. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, all she could do was put one foot in front of the other as she stumbled away from the house into the night. Somewhere to her left the dog was still barking, and coming from the house she could still hear the moans and grunts of walkers. He'd stopped yelling though- stopped telling her to run.

_Focus!_ She tried to shake herself mentally, tried to get herself to stop rushing through the graveyard into the darkness.

_Daryl. You have to get Daryl. How are you going to save Daryl. _

She slowed her pace forcing herself to rack her brain for ideas. She looked around her for something, anything that she could use to go back and help him. Seeing nothing besides an abandoned blue Lincoln nearby, she desperately unzipped her bag, looking for anything she could use to rescue Daryl. She pulled out the pistol they'd stashed in the bag and shakily began to reload the magazine.

"Beth!"

His voice cut through the night and relief washed over her. He'd made it. He'd gotten out alive. She opened her mouth to call him over to her when a sweaty palm clapped over her mouth and the steal butt of a gun pressed against her temple.

"Beth!" She cried out into her attackers palm but he was still too far away to hear her muted scream.

"Drop the bag 'n the gun. Or I'll shoot him dead before he even knows I'm here." The man whispered into her ear.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she let the bag fall to the ground.

"Good choice bitch. Now get in the car," the stranger murmured pressing her forward towards the Lincoln.

"Beth!" Daryl was getting closer now, and she cried out into her kidnappers palm again. Her kidnapper, hearing Daryl's approach as well, tightened his grip over Beth's mouth and speedily dragged her the remaining ten feet to the car.

She momentarily felt a rush of hope as the gun was lifted off her temple, but then he brought it back down with force and everything began to go black as she was shoved into the car and heard the engine revv to life.

"Stop! Wait!" She heard Daryl yell as the car pulled away and she started to black out.

"Poor fuck's tryna chase down the car for you," her kidnapper said, his voice full of contempt, "but yer mine now. Matter a' fact, I think I'ma keep you all to myself. Don' matter what Joe says 'bout that claimin' bullshit- ain't no way they'd lemme keep a fine piece of ass like you ta myself fer long."


	2. Chapter 2

Beth woke up with a throbbing headache, in the leg well of the passenger seat of the Lincoln. Weak sunlight was shining through the windows of the car, and her hands had been clumsily bound with the passenger side seatbelt. Ignoring the pain in her ankle, which she'd probably reinjured running the night before, Beth repositioned in the leg well and crawled clumsily up onto the passenger seat in order to get a better sense of her surroundings.

They were parked on a service road next to railway tracks, and her kidnapper was visible through the dirty passenger side window. He was a middle aged rough looking man, and was dressed in filthy ragged clothes that looked like they once belonged to a member of a biker gang. He was relieving himself shamelessly in the bushes a few yards away from the car, and in the brief moment she sat watching him, cocked his head to spit towards the tracks. She looked away mortified and a wave of nausea and fear rolled over her as she remembered the stench of chewing tobacco she'd smelled on him last night as he'd whispered his threats into her ear.

This was a bad man.

She forced herself to look back up at her captor, and shifted deliberately in her seat to pull her bound hands around to her back jean pocket. Relief flooded over her when she felt that her switch blasé was still there. Weeks spent on the road with Daryl had changed her habits- these days she was always armed in at least two ways. She carefully moved the knife to her front pocket where it would be more accessible, thanking god for the small mercy that weeks on the road had made her jeans loose-fitting and stretched out, so the knife wasn't clearly visible in her pocket. She was also lucky, she mused to herself, that her kidnapper clearly wasn't all that intelligent, or else he would've checked her for weapons while she slept and bound her with something more restrictive than a seatbelt.

_He underestimates me_, she thought to herself. _Good._

He finished his business and turned back towards the car, sneering when he saw her sitting in the passenger's seat.

Look meek, Beth thought to herself. It didn't take much effort, if she was being honest with herself. She didn't want to think about what he was going to do to her, what he'd implied he'd do to her last night as they drove away. Her only hope was surviving long enough to escape or be rescued by Daryl.

He opened the door and slid into the driver's seat smirking as she recoiled, pushing against the passenger side door to get as much distance between herself and him as possible.

"Don' get yer panties in a twist yet girly, it ain't yer time yet. Don' worry though, it'll come, I just ain't much of a mornin' person in that way, takes away my energy fer the whole day if you get my drift."

Beth swallowed in horror. Not only did his short speech make his perverse intent clear, but this man was also clearly the type of sick person who delights in causing fear.

He smiled at her look of terror and continued, "B'sides, I need my energy today, gotta stake out whoever's been puttin' these signs up, see if any'a these do-gooding fucks are still alive, 'n see if me 'n my compatriots are well equipped 'nough to take whatever kinda compound they got set up at this place they keep advertising."

Beth, who wasn't sure what to make of what he'd just said to her, but wanted to keep him talking put on her best helpless sounding voice and said quietly, "I don't know what you're talking about."

He chuckled, derisively but seemed to appreciate the opportunity to plant more seeds of fear in her because he said, "Ain't nothin' to bother yerself about, mos' likely there won' be nothin' at this terminus place, n' it'll just give me an excuse to have my fun with you fer a few days without Joe gettin' suspicious. Make no mistake, this is the end of the line fer you sweetheart."


	3. Chapter 3

Daryl didn't know how many hours had passed since he'd last slept but he willed himself forward, careful not to show any weakness in front of Joe and his men. Beth must have been taken ten miles away from where the group found him and yet he couldn't shake the suspicion that they were somehow related.

_She wouldda stopped,_ he thought to himself for the hundredth time since he saw the Lincoln pull away. _If it was up to her, she wouldda stopped when she heard you callin' for her._

He'd tried hours ago to tell himself that maybe he was wrong about her. If she was more self-interested than he thought, more cut throat then she'd let on, then that meant that she might be out there safe with someone she wants to be with. The thought hurt him, but he could live with being abandoned, live with being unwanted. But deep down he knew when the car drove away that something was very very wrong. He'd never claim to be any expert on reading women but somehow he was completely sure that if Beth Greene had had any power in the situation…

_She wouldda stopped._

The thought made him sick with worry, but also brought him back to the present.

_Ain't no use in wallowing, if someone bad took her you need to keep your fuckin' mind clear. _

The way these men were moving together told Daryl they were familiar with the area and that they were moving with a sense of purpose. He'd been around their type before, hell probably most people would say he was their type, and he knew you just don't get lazy southern SOBs to haul ass like this unless they've got somewhere to get to. Since the walkers took over, the somewheres had really become all about the someones, and if they were booking it to get to a base with other dirt bags like them then there was a chance one of them took Beth.

It wasn't much to go on, but it was enough to keep him putting one foot in front of the other, and right now, that was all he needed.

They'd been driving along the tracks for about five hours when they came to a tunnel. Just the sight of the black gaping hole in the hillside filled her with dread. There was no way she was going to let him drive her in there, the moment the darkness surrounded the car she'd do it. Stab him in the neck before he knew what hit him then grab the wheel if she could and try to drive the car out of their before he reanimated…. Or any walkers in the tunnel got to them… or he crashed into the side of the tunnel…

Even in her head the plan sounded hopeless. Still she began to tug at her bound arms slowly, hoping that her movements were slight enough for him not to notice. They were drawing closer, only about a hundred yards away when she felt him take his foot off the gas. He let the car roll to a stop.

"Well. Ain't no way I'm drivin' into that hellhole. Looks like I'll have to find 'nother way of gettin' to these terminus folks," he said, cracking his knuckles absentmindedly. Then he turned towards her, a lazy malicious grin on his face.

"But I'll figure that out later… now it's time for you 'n me to have some fun."

Before she could react he had shoved her against the passenger's side door, roughly pushing her head against the glass window with one arm as he pulled her hips towards him with the other.

"Oh baby doll just look at the ass you've got on you."

The fear was so intense beth felt like she would vomit. Hands still bound she willed herself not to pull away instinctively but instead to go for the knife in her front pocket. He was shifting around in his seat now trying to move himself into position behind her. In another second he'd be going for her pants. Beth gripped the handle of the knife and inched her body closer to the door.

_Make him come to you, you need the slack in the seatbelt to stab him you've only got one shot…_

"No! Please!" she said huddling up away from him facing out the window. She was straining her eyes trying to watch him move in closer from behind without turning around. Something moved in the corner of her eye but she ignored it.

"Oh honey… no 'mount o' beggin's gonna change my mind," he said, pulling his knees up onto the seat. Beth heard the sound of him unzipping his pants at he reached out to cup her ass with his right hand

_WHAM!_

Something slammed into the driver's side of the car and made him lose his balance and pitch over on top of her. Without even looking up to see what the new threat was Beth spun around and stabbed her disgusting captor in the neck. Expecting to see a heard of walkers closing in around the car she looked up, to see a wild eyed lady holding a metal pipe she'd just used to bash in the driver's side window with a long reddish brown braid swinging around her neck staring down at her as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Emma! We found you at last!"


End file.
